Flourish

Flourish is a browser-based data visualization platform that lets users turn spreadsheets or manually entered data into interactive charts, maps, timelines and narrative visual content without writing code. Users select from a library of templates — including bar chart races, network graphs, chord diagrams and interactive maps — then customize colors, filters and annotations, and publish or embed the result on websites, blogs, presentations and social channels, with outputs designed to adapt to different screen sizes and mobile viewing.

Beyond individual charts, the product is oriented toward data storytelling: Flourish Stories supports scrollytelling, interactive presentations and audio-driven narratives. A Flourish SDK allows developers to build custom templates, and an API supports data exploration and dashboard integration, though the company states the platform is not typically regarded as a business intelligence tool. More recent additions include AI-assisted workflows via the Flourish Connector (starting from an external AI tool) and the Flourish Assistant (refining visuals inside Flourish). Collaboration, advanced sharing and brand-consistency controls are offered for teams.

The company positions solutions for financial services, professional services, newsrooms, marketing, nonprofits, education and government, and supports users with help documentation, training, webinars, datasets, chart guides and an experts network.

Founding story

Flourish was co-founded in 2018 by Duncan Clark and Robin Houston with the aim of enabling everyone to tell stories with data. Clark, who serves as cofounder and CEO, previously worked as a data journalist at the Guardian, as an author with Profile Books, an honorary researcher at UCL and a publisher at Rough Guides/Penguin, with a focus on data, technology and climate change, and had earlier co-founded Kiln. Houston is described as a mathematician and developer.

Business model

Flourish operates a software-as-a-service model with a free tier and paid upgrades. The free version allows users to create, publish, share and embed visualizations, but work created on the free plan is public; keeping projects private requires a paid account. The company also maintains a commercial organization covering sales, customer success, enablement and bespoke visualization work for enterprise and organizational customers.

Subscription/paid account upgrades layered on a free tier, with paid plans required for private projects and additional team, sharing and customization capabilities; a sales and customer success team serves enterprise and organizational accounts.

Traction

The company states the tool is used by a large community of creators reaching tens of millions of viewers every day and by thousands of companies, including the BBC World Service and the London Stock Exchange. It is also referenced in university library and digital humanities toolkits as a recommended student and researcher tool.

Latest developments

Flourish has added AI-assisted workflows, pairing the Flourish Connector — which lets users begin in an external AI tool — with the in-product Flourish Assistant for refining visuals, alongside continued solutions marketing across financial services, professional services, newsrooms, marketing, nonprofits, education and government.